Lotus-like kidney vetch
Anthyllis lotoides
Family · Fabaceae · Harmless
The small silvery legume of sandy scrub and pinewoods, with little heads of yellow flowers wrapped in hairy bracts. It is endemic to the southwestern Peninsula.
Scrubland · Fields and pasture · Pine woods · Dunes and sand
Also known assmall kidney vetch
How to tell it
A small prostrate plant covered in silky hairs giving a silvery tone. Leaves with three to seven leaflets, the end one larger. Small heads of three to eight yellow flowers, wrapped in a very hairy inflated calyx. It grows on sandy acid soil.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
No use. The genus name comes from vulnus, wound, because several species were used in poultices. Traditional use, in the past, and this one in particular has no recorded use.